Oh c’mon now. Seriously: Pakistan? Pakistan’s already lost face to the world on politics, economics, development, education, human rights, and now…cricket? Pakistanis seem to have been taken down on the grounds of one of their most important cultural exports.
Four players of the Pakistan team have been alleged to have accepted bribes to fix matches. There have been impromptu effigy burnings in Karachi to protest this most dishonorable turn, in the view of most Pakistanis. Indeed, the allegations have breached political lines: lawmakers have demanded that members of the Pakistan cricket board resign immediately. However since President Zardari is the chief patron of the Cricket board he now stands in the cross-wires of angry legislators who seem to be motivated by honor as much as politics.
Obviously, Member of Parliament and former Captain of the Pakistan Cricket team, Imran Khan managed to dodge this terrible stain. One wonders: does his biography give him a honorific stance to speak to Pakistan’s cultural honor.